Emily Miller at the Washington Times has thoroughly chronicled Mr. Witaschek’s court proceedings, which to date have spanned nearly two years and now appear likely to continue into the appellate stage.

William F. Vanderpool, a retired supervisory special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, [explained] to the judge that the saboted lead balls have no powder or propellant attached, so are not “live…”

The primer on the shotgun shell had already been struck by the firing pin. Mr. Witaschek kept the misfired shell on his home office desk as a memento from a hunt.

Ultimately, Mr. Witaschek was sentenced to time served, a $50 fine, and is required to enroll with the Metropolitan Police Department’s firearm offenders’ registry within 48 hours.

That wasn’t the end of the story. As Emily Miller further writes, the D.C. Office of Tax and Reveue now is investigating Witashek’s employment payroll records:

The day after the trial, an agent from the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue showed up at Mr. Witaschek’s office.

His employer was given a summons to produce payroll and a multitude of other records for investigators by April 11. No allegations have yet been made in this fishing expedition.

Mr. Witaschek said he filed D.C. taxes and paid up to the due dates required, until he moved to Virginia last year.

“I think the police wanted to confiscate my guns from the beginning. They are really angry that I didn’t comply,” the businessman explained. “They will use whatever government resources they choose to get what they wanted — or make me pay. They already used the U.S. attorney, a grand jury, the D.C. attorney general, and now the Office of Tax and Revenue.”

He added, “I don’t think they’ll stop here. After two years of this, why would they?”

Comments

Nope. Mr. Witaschek is a peaceable gun owner. This administration apparently considers those folks to be sub-human and/or monsters; they have no civil or human rights to violate.

And why should they? The federal statutes on violation of rights under color of law, and conspiracy of the same, are found in 18 USC 241 & 242 … which are prosecutable only by the same administration that routinely violates them. Who watches the watchers?

If you really want to nail someone, you use taxes as the basis of a conviction. With the complexity of tax codes, particularly for business owners, there isn’t a business in this country that couldn’t get busted on some arcane, contradictory “error” if the government chooses to make you their latest chew toy.

RE: Donald Rumsfeld’s annual letter to the IRS where he admits he has no idea if his taxes are correct – nobody could know given the tax codes.

In the bigger picture, imagine a centrist/socialist society interwoven with so many regulations and petty offenses throughout all sectors, not just tax law, that it becomes impossible for any citizen to not break some obscure law somewhere. If you’re the centrist bureacrat in charge and a target appears, you merely follow the target and/or riff through their records, and within days, hours even, you can expand your prosecution in any number of ways. In this nightmare, you never have a fight with the IRS, or with EPA, or OSHA, or the BLM – you’ll have a fight with ALL of them.

The Federal Register is tens of thousands of pages, and they add more than 250 every day. It is literally impossible for any one person to know all the laws/rules, let alone understand and live within them. And with a growing number of harmless and/or “victimless” crimes being labeled as felonies, it’s a safe assumption that every man, woman, and child in the U.S. unknowingly and unintentionally commits three felonies every day.

All a prosecutor who decides you’re worth pursuing has to do is figure out which ones.

This just tracks what multiple agencies did to Catherine Englebrecht, what happened to Gibson Guitar, what the EPA was conspiring to do when they were caught on tape discussing a “crusade.” It’s gangster government — a combination of ambitious and vindictive regional satraps fulfilling the ideological imperative of mafia overlords in Washington to “set an example.” That’s it. He’s right — why wouldn’t they keep taking the next step? There is no consciousness of absurdity or shame or injustice, none whatsoever, only a toxic fusion of self-righteousness and power and the need to make their point. Their only hope is in the totality of destruction — a realization of fear and awe among those destroyed. If they stopped short now they’d be conceding the folly and pettiness and corruption of their purposes.

If it had been the New York Times instead of Fox News, the case would have been dropped like a hot potato. I never used to believe that the US had political prisoners, but now I think we do, starting with anyone jailed under Watergate. There is accountability, but only if the Republicans are in power and therefore the MSM wakes up.